


Echoes: Of the Dead

by ScarletWillow9



Series: Echoes [2]
Category: Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Heavy Rain
Genre: Alive Aiden, And since I love Skins, Androids are pretty much only in Detroit, Crack Relationships, DBH is set in the present for obvious reasons, F/M, Half-Wendigo Josh Washington, Hank Anderson & Connor Friendship, Hank Being Awesome, I included way too many universes in this wtf, I needed a mysterious character, It/Its Pronouns for Androids (Detroit: Become Human), Josh Washington is Rescued, Kara is rA9 (Detroit: Become Human), Kinda, Mentioned Cole Anderson, Mentionned Tony & Effy, Minor Markus/North (Detroit: Become Human), Multi, Norman knows that Connor is a lot like him, Other, Protective Connor, Protective Markus (Detroit: Become Human), QCU: Quantic Dream Cinematic Universe, RK900 isn't nice, Revolutionary Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Ryan Clayton is an asshole, Some Until Dawn references as well, Sorry nines fans, YOLO, Yes you read correctly about Effy, kara is awesome, one including Effy, you have to thank my random brain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25401112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletWillow9/pseuds/ScarletWillow9
Relationships: Aiden & Jodie Holmes, Cole Freeman & Jodie Holmes, Connor & Alice Williams (Detroit: Become Human), Connor & Kara & Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Connor (Detroit: Become Human) & Norman Jayden, Connor/Kara (Detroit: Become Human), Ethan Mars & Shaun Mars, Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson & Kara & RK800 "Connor" Android(s) & Alice Williams, Hank Anderson & Upgraded Connor | RK900, Jodie Holmes & Kara, Josh & Kara & Markus & North & Simon (Detroit: Become Human), Kara & Alice Williams (Detroit: Become Human), Kara & Jericho Members (Detroit: Become Human), Markus/North (Detroit: Become Human), Norman Jayden/Jodie Holmes
Series: Echoes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1839640
Kudos: 10





	1. After the rain, comes the storm

“My eyes are open now!” A man was holding a little girl at gunpoint, his face was streaked with tears and some blue liquid, and a small light was blinking a bright red on his temple… But all Jodie could focus on were the little girl’s cries, and the man’s eyes, they were glowing with a strange light, she knew what was happening inside of his mind, and to his soul.

“I will never let anyone humiliate me again!” He clenched his teeth and held the gun tighter against the child’s crying face, Jodie could hear some faint indistinct echoes, seemingly coming from her, but she wasn’t even moving her mouth, the blonde young looking man just kept staring at her, reacting to “her” words, resentment and rage on his face, even though, the gifted woman hadn’t said anything.

“I’ve spent my life taking orders!” The man surprisingly pulled the gun away from the child’s face, spreading his two arms, one holding the gun the other still holding the small girl, her blue bright eyes shining with more panicked tears.

“Now it’s my turn to decide” as he spoke those words, the man’s eyes slowly turned completely white, and before Jodie could react, he was letting himself fall backwards, the little girl giving one last look at the woman before screaming.

Jodie yelled a “no” before running as the little girl was holding out her arm for the latter to catch it and pull her back on the roof.

However, Jodie arrived too late, the two were already falling, quickly approaching the concrete ground under them…

All Jodie Holmes could do once again, was just watch.

**_“This is all your fault, Jodie Holmes...It has always been”_ **

She woke up, in sweat and gasping, and feeling Norman Jayden’s hands on her shoulders, having stopped trying to shake her awake. 

“God Jodie, you scared me, you wouldn’t wake up and you were shaking…” Jodie just quietly looked up at her lover’s worried eyes “...It was another one of those nightmares, wasn't it?” She still didn’t speak, she just kept staring at Norman, her mind already doing cartwheels with her thoughts and the sentences she kept hearing in those recurring dreams that had been going on for weeks now…

**_It will never be over._ **

**_This is all your fault, Jodie Holmes._ **

She slowly sat up, Norman following her lead and still keeping a protective hand on her shoulder, softly caressing it, despite the gesture not seeming to appease her...

“...I...I’m not sure they’re just nightmares anymore” Jodie finally spoke up.

* * *

A young woman, the same long brown hair than Jodie, and her eyes, despite being a bright blue, holding the same sadness within them was walking alongside another man, probably of her age, smoking a joint as the smell hit Aiden, the two walked past him, the young girl holding her arms crossed as she looked around, the wind making her hair swirl, Aiden couldn’t help but follow her, she reminded him too much of Jodie, the man kept speaking but she seemed to not be listening to him at all as she kept walking, more and more slowly...

“I’ve been here before…” she said suddenly, the young boy who had walked beside her had stopped walking at her strange statement that had nothing to do with what he was talking about… 

“Something bad happened here…” her blue eyes were slowly changing, gaining some sort of glimmer…

“What?” The young boy asked clumsily, as Aiden kept watching, hearing some strange growling noises, that weren’t unfamiliar to him.

“I was screaming…” The young brunette continued “Someone got hurt…” her eyes kept glowing brighter, Aiden approached, he tried to wave his hand before her face, but got no response, confirming she couldn’t see him at all. Both him and the other man who had been with her frowned

“Okay this is getting way too Stephen King to me” The girl’s friend spoke up behind her, but she ignored him as she kept staring, her face slowly shifting from a morbid calm expression to a more horrified one.

“Someone got hurt…” She repeated eerily, then turned around to look at who Aiden assumed to be the girl’s boyfriend, or maybe not considering the way she was looking at him “Someone got hurt!”

“What the fuck are you on about Effy?! Nobody did-” A bus passed loudly on the road beside them as the girl, “Effy” was now holding her hands against her ears, covering them as she began to scream.

As the bus kept driving past them, Aiden suddenly heard the same girl’s voice echoing a name “ _Tony!!”_ and an entity showed itself briefly, swirling around the brunette, Aiden Holmes quickly ran to her, to try and help her, but realised he couldn’t touch her either…

“Effy?” The man before her worried as she kept crying and covering her ears

“My brother! He got hit! He got run over here!” She began to hit against her head before finally lowering it and opening her eyes, they were bloodshot and gray “What’s happening? What’s happening to me?!” She kept repeating this question until the young man with her didn’t find any other way to make her snap out of this but to slap her.

“...What’s wrong with me?” She asked quietly, then she held her eyes up, still gray and asked her friend “Hit me again!” 

“Effy...Please stop-”

“I can’t!” She pushed him and quickly ran away, Aiden promptly following her, uttering a quick “Fuck!”.

The young girl kept running until she reached a highway, with a busy traffic, her friend having followed behind her.

“Eff!! Get out the road man!!” He tried to quickly run to her, but the cars were faster, and as Aiden tried, in vain since he couldn’t touch the woman, to run to her as well, he found himself unable to move now.

“I’m not scared! I wanna be hurt! I wanna remember! I’m not scared! Come on!!” She kept screaming, her eyes still having this strange glow, and the entity showed itself again to Aiden “ _Come on!!!!_ ” 

And finally to the horror of both men, a truck hit her.

“No!!!” Both Aiden and Effy’s friend screamed.

The young girl’s corpse’s head turned over to stare at Aiden now, with fully white eyes, the gifted man gasped

 _“You shouldn’t be here Aiden..._ **_You’re one of us_ ** _”_

Aiden gasped and sat up, finally awake, he kept breathing heavily and looked around his (now single bed) room. Panting, he searched for any signs of entity’s presence, before burying his head in his hands, he had had one nightmare already, a couple of weeks ago, the same one was repeating again and again, except without Jodie by his side, unlike the first time. He kept finding his way back into this burning city he and his sister had seen, he kept seeing this strange woman with her kind smile falling over a bridge, kept ending up... _trapped, devoured,_ by the entities until he would die, to become one of them again…

**“ _You’re one of us…”_**

The eerie voice kept echoing in his head as he began to sob, he wasn’t sure if they were right, if deep down he still belonged to the Infraworld, or if he had deserved another chance at life…

After a while, he finally managed to calm down, having splashed some water on his face and grabbing a glass of water, he had decided sleep wouldn’t be on the schedule again until he would fall from exhaustion… To keep himself busy, he turned on the TV as he sat down on his bed, switching channels randomly, only half paying attention to the random movies that were currently airing, eventually though, something made him stop,

_“I am currently at the place of the accident, the truck driver has already been put into custody by the police, waiting to be interrogated later in the morning, an ambulance has been called as well as the parents of the young Elizabeth “Effy” Stonem”_

Aiden froze hearing the name and seeing the same girl from his nightmare on a cot, in an ambulance, a blonde woman holding her hand crying, probably her mother, and the same young man, his eyes stuck to the ground.

_“Her death was declared half an hour ago by the medic team sent to the scene. According to what the young James Cook who had been with the girl all evening said, she suddenly began to scream nonsense before running to the highway, waiting for a car to hit her. The tragedy that happened tonight sadly reminds us of the recent increase of suicide rate in the area of Philadelphia, we can now only hope that Effy Stonem’s death will bring some attention to what could very well be the criminal work of a sect or something even more sinister, and that the Philadelphia police forces will finally react. This was Nancy C. Johnson for ICN.”_

Aiden turned off the TV and quickly got up, grabbing his room’s key.

* * *

Jodie had been unable to shake this feeling away after her nightmare, this feeling of being unable to do anything against an upcoming threat, despite her gifts, this impression of being useless that she had managed to chase away when she had finally caught the Origami Killer, and now it was back, still haunting her… 

She had tried to give sleeping another chance but to no avail, she just got up, careful to not wake Norman as she gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, more to reassure herself that he was still here than any other reason, then went to sit at the desk, looking at the window to see the rain still falling… She sighed before opening a drawer, she quickly glanced at Norman’s ARI glasses, a little sigh fell out of her lips as she turned her head to her sleeping boyfriend before turning her eyes back to the desk and pushing the glasses a little to take what she was searching: a small folder that she was about to open until she heard a well known voice:

“Can’t sleep?”

“I didn’t mean to wake you up” Jodie looked up, trying a small smile as Norman bent down to give her a quick kiss.

“You didn’t, I don’t need a lot of sleep, I’m used to working late”

“With me around I thought you’d need more sleep” She punctuated her sentence with a small wink

“Well with you having troubled sleep lately, yes I do sleep less but-”

“That’s not what I meant…” She was still smirking despite her small frown, the profiler looked at her, confused for a small moment before widening his eyes, his face flushed a little, Jodie chuckled.

“I just woke up, alright?” 

“As if that was an excuse” both of them exchanged a small laugh, before Norman saw the folder Jodie had left on the desk.

“What’s that?” Jodie sighed, before turning in her seat to take the folder and open it so Norman could see: multiple drawings of strangely-shaped creatures, none of them looked like anything that the human eye alone could comprehend. The FBI agent frowned as he took a closer look, Jodie began to speak behind him:

“I see things at night...terrifying things…”

Norman took one drawing, the creature on it looked like a black mist with eyes, this one wasn’t unfamiliar to the agent…

“These things...are they entities?” He asked, despite having been with Jodie for a short while now, she hadn’t spoken much about all of this: entities, her gift, her past…

“This one definitely is” she said pointing to the drawing Norman had in hand “The others though...I think they are, I don’t see what else they could be but...they usually don’t look like this...I keep seeing them in my nightmares” Norman tore his eyes away from the drawing and instead put a hand on Jodie’s shoulder “I told you...I don’t think they’re just nightmares Norman, there must be a reason for me to see all of this”

“Is there anything we can do about it?” Jodie just looked down at her drawings, her mind wandering as she could think of nothing: all her nightmares had nothing to do with each other, there were always some kind of entity present which was the only link between them, but she could not explain the burning city, nor the possessed people, nor that mysterious woman with grey eyes, nor why she kept hearing those words

“ _It’s all your fault”_

She closed her eyes for a moment, holding her forehead, and finally with a sigh

“I don’t know...I don’t even know the reason I see this, I don’t know if the things I witness are actually happening or not, for all I know they could just be…” She took a brief pause “A weird way for the entities to torment me”

“Torment you? Why would they?”

She just scoffed “Crap-ass luck” Jodie turned around with a small hollow smirk “They’ve been surrounding me my whole life Norman, they’re not gonna leave me alone now…”

“I wish they would” the profiler just blurted out, staring at the drawings, realizing what Jodie had to face every night.

“Yeah, so do I” The latter did a small scoff, staring at the wall, tiredness, both from the lack of sleep and actual mental exhaustion, clear on her almost emotionless face, _almost,_ as her eyes were beginning to get wet with tears, she lowered them to fight them away as she could see Norman kneel next to her chair, to be face to face with her, she let out another sigh.

“You truly are the strongest woman I’ve ever met Jodie…” He had no answer beside Jodie’s face beginning to frown as she let out a sob:

“What if I’m tired of being strong?” Norman didn’t even bother saying anything, seeing his lover on the verge of a breakdown, he knew words weren't what she needed for now, he just reached out to hold her, Jodie quickly engulfed herself in his arms, giving up the fight against her tears.

They stayed like this for a small moment, Jodie wished she could have just stayed like this forever, with Norman Jayden holding her in his arms and caressing her hair soothingly, but a hurried knock at their door broke this restful moment, exasperated she just yelled

“Fuck off!”

“You fuck off!” She recognized her brother’s voice and rolled her eyes

“What do you want Aiden?” She spoke still in an annoyed tone

“How about you guys let me in first? If you’re not too _busy_ that is!” She could almost see him lift his arms and roll his eyes with a huff, even if he was still behind the door as she rose up to go open to him, Norman giving the drawings a last look, Jodie had managed to chase _his_ demons away, and yet he _couldn’t do anything about hers_.

“Here get in” 

“Moody much?”

“Shut up” Jodie just sighed as she closed the door behind him, noticing the circles under his eyes as well, they had briefly talked about their shared nightmare weeks ago now, but they didn’t have any other after this, Jodie had assumed she was the only one still haunted by them, but seeing her brother’s eyes, she easily guessed she was wrong: “What’s wrong?” 

“You haven’t seen the news, have you?” Aiden said in a lower voice this time, looking first at his sister then at his friend, his voice began to shake “A girl...A girl killed herself…” Jodie then sighed as she held her forehead

“Great, as if this night couldn’t get any worse-”

“No, wait just… She didn’t _kill herself_ ”

“You just said she did…?” Norman frowned

“Yeah but-Fuck!” it was Aiden’s turn to lose his composure as he sat down on the bed, shaking a little, Jodie immediately sat down next to him, holding his shoulders

“Aiden what is it?”

“She was _possessed!”_

Jodie just stared at him, understanding the matter…

“How-how do you know?” Norman just asked as he sat down as well

“I had a nightmare about it! I saw the whole shit happen! She was just talking with her friend then she began yelling nonsense and ran to the traffic, yelling at them to hit her! And her eyes had _changed_!” His breathing was short, he was almost panting.

“Hey, take it easy okay?” Jodie whispered as she let Aiden lay his head on her shoulder, exchanging a look with Norman, both of them silently understanding that she, obviously, wasn’t alone experiencing those nightmares.

“Did you...how do you know it happened?” Norman still asked, unsure of everything.

“Just turn on the fucking TV! It’s all over the news it happened tonight!” Aiden exclaimed almost hysterically, Jodie held him tighter as he buried his head in his hands, she exchanged a brief look with Norman before he quickly went to pick up his phone to see if what his friend was saying was true, and to see if he had any missing calls from his direction, he held back an exasperated sigh as he saw no signs from them, he had been waiting for them to send him new instructions so he could go back to Washington and officially close the file of the Origami Killer, and take the Holmes with him, so they could all finally leave those horrors behind, but the growing frequency of Jodie’s nightmares and the ignorance his superiors were showing him only served to make things almost as stressful as they had been during the whole Origami Killer’s sordid affair. He pushed those thoughts aside, helping Aiden, who had become a close friend, was all that mattered now, the profiler quickly browsed through his phone only to confirm Aiden’s words.

_“Earlier in the night the death of Elizabeth “Effy” Stonem has been acknowledged publicly. The tragic death of this sixteen year old girl has not only scarred her family and friends, but has also raised even more worry and fear among the citizens of Philadelphia who have been witnessing a sudden increase in suicides. The Philadelphia police forces captain, Leighton Perry who has just closed the case of the Origami Killer, had once again to give the press some words about the incident of tonight:_

_“I know this is a tragedy, and I know how hurt our city must be right now, but unfortunately, we have other things to focus on than a few suicides. The only thing me and my co-workers can assure you is that no criminal forces are behind this.”_

_While confirming the police has been slightly looking into this increase of suicide rate in Philadelphia, they seem uninterested, which should come off as no surprise considering how the search for the Origami Killer had been tedious and would have probably never been successful if not for the efforts of FBI agent Norman Jayden, Jodie Holmes and Aiden Holmes._

_Again, the only thing Philadelphia can do for now is mourn, and wait…”_

Norman frowned at the mention of other suicides and of the police having been informed, how come neither he, nor the Holmes had received any kind of insight in this whole thing, but again he kept this thought for later and just handed his phone to Aiden:

“Is that her?”

“Yeah” he barely threw a quick look at the photo of the young girl, and just looked up at his sister, a few tears escaping from his eyes, _she reminded him so much of Jodie…_

Jodie, again, had to stay strong as she held her brother closer and took the phone to see for herself, while soothingly running her hand into Aiden’s hair, however her hand froze as she recognized two faces in another news entry.

The scream of the little girl from her nightmare echoed in her mind as she read _“Detroit: Child dies in hostage situation”_

“She’s not the first…” Jodie muttered

“What?” Aiden rose his head, a horrified look making its way on his face

“It says there’s been a increase in suicide rate and that shithead Perry of course prefered to throw meaningless words to the Press rather than inform us of this so we could investigate!” Norman’s exasperation finally broke through his calm.

“No I mean...it’s not just _here_. That little girl in Detroit...I had a dream about her” Jodie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the screen even as the two men beside her were staring at her in confusion.

“The man holding her had said some weird things too, like the girl, and his eyes...they were white”

“Fucking shit!!” Aiden exclaimed rising up and kicking the bed behind him “Are those damn entities gonna leave us alone one day?!”

“Aiden, I know this situation is stressful-” Norman began as he rose up, trying to calm his friend

“Stressful?! That’s a fucking euphemism, Norman! I had a nightmare about a girl dying because of those things!! What’s next?! What if they try to get to you?!” Aiden’s eyes widened as he realized what he had just said, he turned his head toward Jodie who was looking up at him with eyes filled with a mix of anger and anxiety.

“I-Sorry I...I’m losing my mind over this, I didn’t mean to lash at you mate”

“...That’s okay,” Norman stated simply, putting a hand on Aiden’s shoulder, trying a small smile.

“What happened in my nightmare is also in the news…” Jodie had lowered her head, her voice barely above a whisper as her long hair hid her face “How come we had no idea about any of this before?” 

“Don’t start blaming yourself sis okay?”

**_“It’s all your fault Jodie Holmes”_ **

“I knew from the beginning it had to be more than just nightmares, yet I didn’t do anything Aiden!” She finally rose up

“Jodie-” Norman had barely begun, before she just turned away, stomping, the lights in the room were slightly blinking.

“I just stayed scared in my bed! I didn’t do anything to save those two girls! I didn’t go the police myself-”

“So they could arrest you for any bullshit excuse?! You know the cops hate our asses Jodie! There was _nothing_ we could do okay?!”

“Of course there was! We had those nightmares for a reason, I was just too blind to see it!”

“How the fuck did you want to intervene Jodie?! I tried to stop that girl but guess what?! I couldn’t! She couldn’t even see me!”

“It’s not just about you Aiden-”

“Neither it is just about you! You’re not alone, Jodie Holmes, when will you realise that?”

At this, she stayed silent, so did her twin brother, the profiler finally spoke up, putting a hesitant arm around Jodie, who leaned into him.

“Aiden is right, you're not alone, you've got us” Jodie just leaned even more to his side, “The two of you have _nothing_ to blame yourselves for alright?”

“How come you didn’t know? It said a worrying raise in suicide rate, surely the FBI would know about that stuff?” Aiden eventually asked, without any aggression in his voice this time.

Norman at first hesitated, but eventually told the truth: “...The FBI hasn’t contacted me at all for a while now, they didn’t even contact me to officially close the Origami Killer investigation” 

A tense silence enveloped the room, adding to the already stress-filled atmosphere, eventually the profiler took the responsibility to break this silence

“Either way, the only ones to be blamed here are the culprits, ergo, the entities”

“And where are we supposed to start on this lead, Sherlock?” Aiden blurted out while his sister seemed deep in thoughts:

* * *

_“Jodie, my job...is to study” Nathan Dawkins hesitated a little on how to approach this subject to a little girl, no matter how strong or intelligent Jodie Holmes was, she was still a child: “... “Strange” things...and then try to explain them...Like the things that happen around you, right Jodie?”_

_The small Jodie just shrugged, unsure of what to expect from this man…_

* * *

_“The DPA has launched a program to study the other side, the Infraworld as they call it” Nathan explained in an urged manner to a seventeen year old Jodie, sitting next to him in his car as he drove fast under the rain, well after midnight in the roads of Pennsylvania. “They created a condenser, a machine to open to what lies beyond”_

_“...They opened a passage...to Aiden’s world?” Jodie asked, a mixture of horror and curiosity forming in her mind, which would later turn into pure fear…_

* * *

_“Don’t let them ever do that again...If they open a passage..._ **_there’ll be nothing left”_ **

* * *

“...Norman?” Jodie’s voice surprised the two men who had once again begun arguing while Jodie had been reflecting, at the sound of her voice however, the latter immediately turned his head toward her “...Do you have any files about an organization called the DPA?”

“DPA?...” The FBI agent looked down in thoughts

“Department of Paranormal Activities”

“...Hang on, just a minute” He strode to the desk and, as Jodie feared, took his ARI glasses and his glove out of the drawer.

“No need to get into...that, maybe you have some paper on them or-”

“Jodie, the FBI doesn’t allow me to carry any paper copy of their database” As he looked at her, her beautiful brown eyes filled with worry, his face softened, understanding the reason “Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take long” Jodie just sighed as Norman was already putting his glasses on.

“Why do you want to get involved with those weirdos again? I mean hey I miss Cole too but-”

“Aiden think for one minute you idiot! If they still exist, they're the only one beside us who could know about those entities' attacks, and maybe they know more than us…” Jodie sighed, her brother had a point, the DPA still belonged to the CIA, and she _definitely_ didn't want to get involved with them ever again.

But crisis times always need a little sacrifice.

“Department of Paranormal Activities: founded in 1983 by Nathan Dawkins” Norman Jayden began to read out loud from his lone file he had found in his database, curiously having the “Jodie Holmes” folder attached to it, Jodie immediately stared as he kept reading

“At first a small group of researchers about paranormal, eventually developing its research and technologies enough for the government to take an interest in this organization and fund their research in exchange of assistance to the military of the United States. Its main base has been relocated multiple times due to accidents and complications during experiments, however its last known location is in Allentown” The profiler eventually stopped reading anything as his eyes began to hurt, he at first considered keeping on with his research but for once, he decided to let go, having enough information, for now…

He hastily removed his glasses as he rubbed his eyes a little, Jodie obviously was already near him

“Norman?”

“I'm okay Jodie…” The profiler turned his head to face her, smiling, no traces of nosebleed or anything else apparent on his face “See?”

“I'll still make you buy a printer someday, you know natural paper might be better than technology” Jodie chuckled lightly, taking a hold of her boyfriend's shoulders as she again gave him a quick kiss, something she couldn't help when in stressful situations, as Norman since their first meeting had always been the calm in the storm for her…

“Ugh get a room” the other Holmes sibling pretended to vomit while still smirking

“You are in our room, Aiden” Jodie rolled her eyes, before facing her profiler again “Anyway we can contact them?”

“I’m not sure Jodie, there weren’t any phone numbers or any contacts in the file, seems like an agency that wants to stay hidden, there was an address though but I doubt they’ll let us in-”

“They will, trust me…” Norman frowned a little at her, he began a question but stopped as soon as his quick mind figured out the situation 

“...You were a member of this organization weren’t you?” Jodie lowered her eyes, despite some good memories with Cole and Nathan, this was the organization who had taken away her mother, who had taken away her childhood, and in a way, any chance of her living a simple life, without all the chaos surrounding hers.

“...I wasn’t part of it, I was being _studied_ by them” As soon as she saw Norman’s eyes widen in fear, she couldn’t suppress the small insecure thought that first occurred: “ _he’s scared of you”_ , but then she reconsidered that he might actually have been afraid of what she meant by “studied”.

“A child born from two gifted parents, one of them already being the organization, you don’t think they would have let me go away easily now did you?” Jodie slightly scoffed, despite the impact of her words “I spent almost my entire life there, until the CIA recruited me”

“...Yeah, same for me” Aiden spoke up with a clumsy voice, he wasn’t truly lying, but he wasn’t telling the whole story either, he had been studied at the same time than Jodie, even more so as he had been an entity, a lesser being to every single member of the DPA with the exception of Cole and Nathan, but there was no way he would reveal to Jayden that he had been one of those things.

Jodie threw him an understanding glance as Norman had lowered his eyes, slightly and slowly nodding, taking in this new information about Jodie, which explained a few more things, and somehow, made him feel even more close to her, they had both been shut in and outsiders, and still were to this day.

“You think they’ll let you in then?” Norman simply asked her, approaching her, to show her that again, nothing would change his opinion of her.

“P-probably” Jodie stuttered a little, she had expected Norman to be disgusted with her or any other negative reactions she could imagine, but again, the FBI agent proved her wrong, she couldn’t fight the small smile on her face “Beside if they’re aware of what’s been happening around, I’m sure they could use mine and Aiden’s info”

“You said they were in Allentown right? How far is that?” Aiden again asked, not failing to notice the small smile on his sister’s face

“It’s an hour from here, not that far really” 

“Great! How about we take advantage of being in the middle of the night? The roads are gonna be-”

“Wow, easy there jackass!” Jodie exclaimed as her brother was, as usual, thinking recklessly “You have barely slept and neither did I, we’ll go in the morning, okay? Besides it’ll leave us some time to pack… We might need to stay there”

“Fiiiine” Aiden begrudgingly relented “I’ll just-go back to my room then” He pointed out the door and did a small wave to his sister and Norman before leaving the room, still unsure if he would be able to get some sleep anyway…

“Well then, I suppose I’ll begin packing some of our stuff” Norman gave Jodie a small smile as well a another kiss on her cheek as he went to the cupboard of the room, Jodie again frowned in confusion

“Norman...You...You’re okay with all of this?”

“What do you mean by “all of this” ?”

“Having to investigate those entities, and just...all this mess in general, you don’t seem fazed by it at all”

“Those aren’t the first entities we encounter, you told me there had been a lot during our search for Shelby”

“That was just the tip of the iceberg...we’re gonna enter a whole other territory here...I’d understand if you wanted to step away from it…” Jodie lowered her eyes to the floor as she saw Norman’s blue ones stare at her, she saw him approach to hold her once again, not saying anything for a moment until she melted in the embrace.

“If this is part of your life Jodie, I don’t want to step away, I want to be with you, no matter what happens” He muttered in her hair.

Jodie grinned, holding him even closer as she eventually did a small laugh 

“Wow, you're becoming more and more romantic Jayden” she teased as the latter flushed a little

“Is that a problem?”

“No, you dork” Jodie scoffed as she looked up at him, they both exchanged a loving smile, before Jodie leaned up to kiss him deeply.

“I love you Norman” she uttered the words in a small voice, not out of insecurity, but of emotion, happiness rushing into her, the realization of Norman being the respite from the storm of her life getting to her again.

“I love you too Jodie, nothing's gonna change that” The usually careful profiler spoke his mind, without processing nor searching for any right words or to hide his feelings, he didn't feel the need to do that around Jodie, she made him feel safe.

With another small kiss, the latter moved away from the embrace, taking a few steps backward to the bathroom

“I'm taking a shower real quick then we'll try to get some more sleep, hm?”

“No problem, I'll pack some stuff in the meantime”

“One last thing agent” she threw him a seductive look “I might need some help _relaxing_ so I can fall asleep” She again did a small wink, which, inevitably, made the profiler pink and look down, to which Jodie laughed as she turned back to the bathroom

“Specialists say a _warm_ shower is helpful to help the body relax, keep that in mind love” Jodie's eyes widened as she turned around to face a smirking Norman Jayden

“What happened to my awkward profiler?” She laughed, some faint pink on her cheeks

“He fell in love” She rolled her eyes at his answer but still unable to suppress the smile on her face as she was in the doorway of the small bathroom

“Smooth” she said before finally entering the bathroom, and as she approached the sink and the mirror she almost screamed:

The girl from the news, Effy Stonem, was standing behind Jodie's reflection, a wry smile on her face as her blue eyes shined brightly.

“Jodie what's wrong?!” Norman ran to the bathroom.

Effy had disappeared, but Jodie still stared at the mirror, her expression turning grave

“...We really must find out what's happening” She only stated.


	2. A brewing storm

Jodie was used to not sleeping much, and so surprisingly kept her eyes open even though Norman had been driving for more than half an hour, Aiden had been quietly snoring in the back the first minutes but would always open his eyes again to ask a quick.” Are we there yet?” like an impatient child, Jodie would roll her eyes as her boyfriend would just answer politely at first, indicating where they were and even approximating a time when they would arrive,  _ meticulous as always _ Jodie would smile slightly, giving a small loving glance at Norman, however after the fifth time Aiden asked, the profiler and the gifted woman would just roll their eyes and the agent would just point the GPS, while Aiden then crossed his arms and slumped back into his seat, Jodie then scoffed slightly as she kept looking outside, her smile fading as she remembered her hellish vision, the burning buildings and the creatures and entities crawling everywhere…

_ Once Pandora's box is open...it can never be closed again _

She thought as she considered the DPA probably had opened another rift, another condenser, and that her old life was catching back to her and slowly gripping her again, with the same doubts and thoughts 

Her eyes widened and her thoughts were cut short when she saw again the same thing than last night:

Effy Stonem, in the rear view mirror, sat next to Aiden who again was dozing off, at first just staring at him, no expression on her face, then she turned her head to face Jodie's reflection, had a small smirk and waved at her.

“What the…” Jodie muttered, not meaning to say out loud

“ What's wrong?” her as usual concerned profiler asked

And of course Effy had disappeared.

“...I'm not sure…” Jodie slightly shook her head, then her eyes turned back to Norman, and smirked at him “Lots of shit obviously”

“And here I thought we could go to some vacation as soon as the Origami Killer would have been arrested” Norman smirked as well

“What like with a beach and nothing but us and the sea and you planning a romantic trip to eventually ask me to marry you? Stop making me dream” Jodie smiled and eventually looked away, not hearing the small “something like that...” Norman muttered, giving her a small longing glance before focusing back on the road

“Hello? Brother in the back!”

“Oh shut it!” Jodie snapped back playfully, Aiden gave her a small smirk before leaning his head back against the seat, closing his eyes…

“Hey” a voice he had only heard in his dream said simply, Aiden's blue orbs snapped open.

“What the fuck?! What are you doing here?!”

“Ugh do you have to be so loud?” She spoke calmly, Aiden looked at his sister and his friend, they hadn't noticed anything nor moved.

“You've fallen asleep again, they won't disturb us Aiden”

“How do you know my name?”

She turned her own blue eyes surrounded by a darker blue shade makeup at him, and again spoke in a calm voice

“I'm dead, remember? And apparently you and your sister can see me, I figured I'd hang around”

“ Why? What the fuck do you want with us?!”

She again did the same smile she always did, the first time having been when Jodie saw her in the mirror yesterday.

“ I want to get to know you two”

“Bullshit” Aiden frowned then, gaining more confidence”When ghosts like you hang around they have a deeper reason than this. You don't fool me, Effy Stonem.”

This sentence seemed to have gotten a reaction out of her as she moved slightly and lost her smile.

“Fine, you're smarter than I thought” her tone was a little more agitated “You saw me die”

“...Yeah, I did, I'm sorry-” Aiden had begun softly before being interrupted 

“Wanker”

“Hey!”

“You didn't do anything about it”

“What the fuck?! I couldn't! I don't even know you!”

“...You're right you couldn't,  _ but you could have”  _

Aiden's expression fell at this sentence, partly understanding what she meant, but hoping it wasn't what he was thinking. Her blue steel like eyes stared at him again

“If you were still an entity”

Aiden's head snapped away from her, refusing to listen to her nor even acknowledge her, she had no right to talk to him about this, hell she had no right to talk to him  _ at all _ .

“You could maybe have fought away the one that got me killed, or moved the car away you know, like you used to do with Jodie-”

“Don't say her name” He growled, hearing her say his sister's name with this voice felt like venom

“Either way, I think maybe you were more useful as an entity than you are now”

Aiden still didn't respond…

Effy shrugged

“But hey, that's just what I think” She again did this stupid smile as Aiden eyed her angrily, any guilt he had felt about her last night vanishing, “I might be wrong-”

“Just shut up!” Aiden yelled at her, moving to push her away but she was already gone, he frowned

“Wow, calm down Aiden, I know you're tired-” Jodie started then turned around to see her brother's worried state “...What's wrong?”

“...Are we there yet?” 

  
“That's it” Norman stated nervously as the car was slowly approaching the entrance gate of a big facility, a “Warning” sign naturally laying on the metallic grate surrounding the whole place like a military camp. The car stopped in front of a barrier for inspection, a man opened the window as Norman was already fumbling in his jacket to find his badge.

“Identification please” The man barely rose his head.

“Agent Norman Jayden, FBI” The latter showed his badge, the security guard moving his head only now to stare at him.

“I'm sorry sir but the FBI has no authorization to enter our facilities” Norman frowned, annoyed and frustrated by this, only reminding him that even the FBI was ignoring him, he was about to reply something but Jodie approached the car window:

“He's with me, Jodie Holmes”

At those words and seeing her resolved face, the man lost all of his composure as he stared, flabbergasted at her, she had become, whether infamous or not, a legend here, he buffered:

“Miss Holmes! Of-of course, then uh...I guess I'll warn Mister Freeman of your arrival” He quickly moved to raise the barrier as Aiden smirked

“So Cole is responsible now? Cool” contrary to her brother, Jodie looked around, even more tense than before as she took in the new base, it was bigger than the one she had grown up in, smaller than the one that had been destroyed by the Black Sun…

_ The Black Sun _ …

As much as the Pandora's box thought couldn’t leave her mind, she truly hoped she was wrong, especially if Cole was the one in charge of the whole base, he wouldn’t have been foolish enough to recreate a condenser as big as Nathan had, he probably wouldn’t create condensers at all. But things were never easy with the DPA, nor the CIA…

Jodie noticed some men walking around the base in military clothing, she easily guessed with  _ whom _ they were, the former CIA operative looked away as soon as one made eye contact at her, she felt a hand on hers and looked up, Norman was giving her a gentle reassuring look, and she couldn’t help the small smile…

They were let in rather fast, well at least to the entrance of the base, they still had to pass yet another guard, who seemed rather unwilling to let anyone in, even Jodie herself:

“Listen to me, do you know who I am?”

“Yeah, you’re Jodie Holmes, the one who betrayed us and caused all of our previous projects to fail, I don’t see why I should let you in so you can ruin even more”

“I  _ saved  _ all of your asses!! I could have just let you deal with the Black Sun all on your own, yet I stayed, I just need a few answers it’s not like I plan on sticking here, so now  _ let me in” _

The guard was again about to argue but the lights of the room began to flicker and move rather unusually, even in a place like this, he stared, some fear in his eyes at Jodie whose stare was dark.

“Jodie, maybe we should-” Norman barely had the time to put a hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder to calm her before being interrupted by a beaming voice:

“Jodie!”

The latter turned around, the lights stopped moving and flickering immediately as a grin slowly showed itself on Jodie’s face as she was now facing the man she was expecting:

Cole Freeman, a giant grin on his face matching Jodie’s as they strode to each other to embrace tightly, Aiden behind them smiled as well, and was about to say something but bit back his words and lowered his eyes as he remembered that Cole couldn’t recognise him…

“Jodie, my little princess!” The two exchanged a small happy laugh before pulling away so Cole could look at the young woman before him:

“You’re  _ radiant _ ! I’ve never seen you like this before!” He still beamed “It’s been so long…”

“You can’t imagine how much I missed you Cole…” Jodie wiped her eyes, Cole took a sadder expression as he hesitated upon his next words:

“Jodie...I’m sorry about Aiden-” Her reaction however left him speechless: she was laughing, Aiden chuckled as well as he approached, Cole’s frown and confusion grew even more.

“Are you a friend of Jodie?” for some reason the latter laughed more, as Aiden grinned

“Good to see you buddy” The young man had some tears in his eyes

“...Do I-” Cole was about to ask but Aiden didn’t let him finish

“I know Jodie already apologized many times on my behalf but still, sorry for that time I possessed your body to drive Jodie away and sorry for all the broken cameras and and broken windows” He was both chuckling and tearing up now as he kept staring at Cole, waiting for his reaction, he didn’t have to wait for long as the man was now holding both his hands before his mouth to hide his surprise, his eyes wide, he stuttered

“Ai-Aiden?” The latter nodded as Cole ran to hug him “Oh my god!” still holding him, but now looking at him “Look at you! A handsome lad!” He laughed “And taller than me at that, you’re still trying to hover above all of us is that it?” Both Aiden and Jodie laughed slightly, Norman had stayed a bit more behind, smiling at the scene, and letting this small “family” enjoy their reunion without imposing himself immediately.

“I must look like a very emotional dad right now” Cole was still laughing, wiping a lone tear off his eye “Look at you two...brother and sister…” He grinned

“Nothing has changed really he's still an annoying little shit” Jodie scoffed

“And you’re still an annoying killjoy” Aiden chuckled with the other two, however, his laugh was cut short by, again, another sight of Effy Stonem, her piercing eyes steady on him like two blades.

“How did this happen?” Cole eventually asked

“Huh?”

“ _ This _ how did it-” He eventually stopped himself as he finally noticed Norman, staring at them, “Who’s that?” He asked, Jodie turned around, and fidgeting a little she made a small sign for Norman to join them, the latter advanced, and as usual, already with his badge out, introduced himself

“Agent Norman Jayden, FBI”

“You really need to find other ways to introduce yourself sometimes” Jodie smiled

“How do you want me to? That’s my name and my profession”

“Jodie, I thought-...What are you doing with someone from the FBI here? He shouldn’t even be allowed to enter this place, you know that-”

“Cole, please, trust me, and you can trust him”

“Princess, I can’t, he might try to sneak information to the FBI about our activities and-”

“Mister Freeman, I assure you, I’m not here on the FBI’s behalf, I’m only here to help Jodie”

“Hold on, how did you two even meet? You usually aren’t keen on people from law agencies”

Jodie and Norman exchanged a small look, Aiden turned his head away to chuckle, eventually the two sighed, and took each other’s hands, Cole’s eyes opened wide.

“Norman is an exception” Jodie smiled lovingly at him, and again as usual he reciprocated it.

“You’re telling me you’re dating an FBI agent?! How did that even happen? Not that I mind but I’m confused” Cole was laughing now, visibly more relaxed 

“She helped me on a case I was working on, I think without her I’d probably be dead by now”

“Don’t exaggerate” Jodie rolled her eyes

“Aren’t you the one who always brag about “saving my ass” ?” Norman chuckled, Jodie soon joining him

“Fair enough” She smiled a last time at Norman then turned her eyes to Cole “He’s with me Cole, trust me on this”

The latter visibly hesitated, fumbling with his hands, then shaking his head

“Jodie I don’t know if I can-”

“Why couldn’t you man? You’re the big boss and all now!” Aiden grinned, however Cole Freeman’s eyes widened and he coughed the embarrassment away.

“Who told you that?”

“I...I thought you were, the guy at the entrance told us he’d tell you of our arrival and all that shit so-”

“I’m only the secondary director of the organization Aiden, as it’s always been” He chuckled a little, however, his laugh was more hollow and soon turned into a sigh as he looked at the other three “Alright I think I can let you in but I’ll still have to tell this to our actual  _ boss  _ as soon as I can...I’m not sure of what he’ll say”

“Is he that much of a jerk?” Jodie scoffed, but got worried as she saw Cole’s expression “...Cole who is it?” The latter closed his eyes and cringed a little as he instead approached Jodie to guide her in the real facility

“Let’s just walk a bit for now okay? I’ll tell you as soon as-” Jodie pushed his arm away 

“Cole,  _ who is it?!” _ Cole finally relented, with a sigh he finally answered

“You know that the DPA has been getting more and more under the CIA’s control and-”

“Just tell me a name Cole!” Jodie exclaimed, getting more and more worried as she already had a suspect coming to mind…

“...Ryan Clayton” Cole finally sighed, Jodie tensed even more and walked a little backwards, Norman holding her back with a confused frown, Aiden on the other hand was already swearing, more than usual, and the lights in the room were once again flickering, Cole Freeman looked up once more and tried to calm her down

“Jodie listen-”

“You’re telling me this, this  _ lying sack of shit is leading the DPA now?! _ ” She yelled, both out of anger and fear of knowing this asshole had this much power in hand, and out of frustration: her old life was definitely trying to crawl its way back to haunt her.

And this could also explain the whole mess surrounding the entities, with a man like this leading the organization responsible for research about them...it could never be good.

“Jodie,  _ calm down _ please…” Norman tried to hold her as he saw the lights moving even more as well as some windows beginning to crack “Who’s that Clayton guy?”

“Just the biggest fucking twat you could imagine!” Aiden exclaimed, noticing the security guard giving him a glare, Aiden just flipped him off without any hesitation.

Aiden’s answer however didn’t really help Norman on this, all he could see for now is that both him and Jodie had history with whoever this man was, and that for Jodie to be in this state he must have done some awful things to her, that alone already made him dislike whoever it was.

“He’s a former CIA operative...he was Jodie’s superior” Cole tried to explain calmly

“You forgot the part where he used me like a puppet to make me kill innocent people”

“Jodie-” Cole still tried to calm her down

“And the part where he pretended to have feelings for me to manipulate me into this, and when he took me away from the only family I had left when I was still a teenager, do I really need to continue Cole?!” Jodie stated, still visibly angry, the lights hadn’t stopped flickering…

“...You put a man like this in charge of your organization?” Norman this time threw a glare, which surprised Aiden, to Cole Freeman

“I told you, I’m not the one who makes  _ all  _ the decisions, I’d rather a scientist like Nathan was rather than a military guy at our head, but the DPA still belongs to the CIA…” Cole looked again at Jodie, regret in his eyes as he approached her carefully “I didn’t get any say princess...I’m sorry”

She just kept her head low, not answering, the lights had stopped moving and flickering, seemingly signaling she had calmed down enough at least.

“That’s fine Cole…” She finally looked up, taking a hold of Norman’s hand on her shoulder “Beside I might not stay long enough for him to even notice me so” She tried a chuckle, but didn’t even bother to hide the hollowness behind it.

“If he bothers us, I’ll kick his ass anyway, or you will, your call Jodes” Aiden added, which made Jodie made a genuine small laugh this time

“Yeah- I mean anyway!” Cole quickly caught himself back, he had tolerated the man back in the day of the ancient lab and during the Black Sun incident, he seemed to have genuinely changed his way back then, god knows what happened in the next years though, as soon as the DPA was reformed with him at the head, the scientist remembered why he had disliked the man long ago: greedy, manipulative, no empathy for anyone… “You-Unless nostalgia brought you back here you probably had something to do here huh?” He tried to change the subject as they finally began to walk to the entrance door, not noticing the guard behind them making a call…

* * *

As soon as Jodie stepped inside the real facility, she felt like she had jumped back in time, everything was almost the same, save for the now shiny blue and white walls instead of the old black and white, and more people walking around, some of them in lab coats, others in security uniforms, a couple of the scientist waved at Cole, some, seemingly younger, stopped their tracks as they saw  _ Jodie Holmes  _ in the facility. Norman had briefly explained what had happened to Cole, he let Jodie and Aiden recount their nightmares, and he took care of showing the news about Effy Stonem and the suicide rate increasing in the news.

“Yeah, I heard about that, Clayton brushed it off as nothing relevant to us, couldn’t shake that feeling that something about all of this was off though” Cole explained as the group finally entered a lift.

Jodie was trying to focus on what her friend was saying but it was really hard with this strange, not unfamiliar, thrumming noise she could hear echoing in the walls.

“Especially when I saw some of the footage with Gary-”

“Footage?” Jodie suddenly asked

“...Yeah, Gary, a friend of mine, fellow scientist here did take a look at some of the footage found on the internet, you know people this day, always recording everything...Guess it has its...morbid uses” 

“...Do they have one of Effy?” Aiden hesitantly asked

“That’s the first one we got, some guy must have hacked the road security cameras before it got erased”

“...Think we could take a look?” Jodie asked, unwilling to see such tragic videos, but also wanting to know if her or Aiden could sense something from it.

“Sure we just need to reach level -3, aka where my lab is” He tried a smile, however Jodie noticed his nervousness, and also could hear the noise that had been following them getting louder, and now Aiden and Norman had seemed to hear it as well.

“...Cole...What aren’t you telling me?” Right as she finished her sentence, the elevator stopped, and Cole sighed

“I’m sorry Princess, I told you...I didn’t get a say in this” the doors opened to show the same hallways than upstairs, but larger, with thick glass windows recovering a good half of every wall on the right, showing a view on…

_ No _

Jodie strode forward, her eyes wide and her mouth agape

“Jodie” Cole began, before closing his eyes, Aiden quickly followed his sister, the same expression on his face.

Behind the glass, was what could fit the description of a black hole, surrounded by a sand like color all around itself, some moving shapes slipping back and forth from within it.

_ Another Black Sun _ .

Aiden was the first one to look away as he could have sworn he saw an entity looking right at him

“What is your _ problem  _ here?!” Aiden yelled “Jodie told you to never make any of this shit again”

“Aiden I told you-”

“I don’t give a shit if you’re not the one calling the shots!! You let it happen!! People died every time you guys tried this Cole!! Nathan fucking  _ died _ because of it!”

“Don’t you think I know that?! I didn’t let it happen!! I tried my best to prevent them from doing this but not every scientist working here knows the risks like I do!” Cole yelled back “...Don’t you think now that you two are here I’m not scared of losing you because of this thing too?” He said with a smaller voice.

“..I-..Sorry mate it’s just...fuck!” He punched the glass “I don’t want to go back there” Jodie tore her eyes away from the new Condenser to look at her brother: he was on the verge of tears, she took one of his hands, neither of them noticing again the young dead Effy staring at them…

“What does he mean “go back”? Mister Freeman please tell me you didn’t put them both in one of those  _ things?! _ ” Norman began to stammer both in fear and anger, he only had vague ideas of what kind of experiments they were leading, but zero information on what Aiden or Jodie had went through during their time in the DPA... 

“You probably know about the Black Sun Incident?” Cole tried to calm the profiler down as the latter quickly nodded

“Heard of it”

“Our former boss, Nathan Dawkins, he…”

_ “You opened my eyes…” Nathan was walking toward Jodie, tied to this stupid thing the CIA had locked her in, trying to put her in the same state than her mother, she didn’t want to become like her, someone who could never move nor speak nor act upon what she could perceive. _

_ And she was worried about Aiden, what would those drugs do to  _ **_him?_ **

_ “It was so obvious…” Jodie faintly recognized Nathan’s voice “but I didn’t want to see” _

_ “H-Help me Nathan…” She muttered weakly _

_ “I’m going to accomplish Man’s oldest dream” He gave her as an only reply, seemingly ignoring, or possibly even unaware of her actual state “Nobody...will have to die anymore, no one will ever be separated again” _

_ “Wh-what are you talking about?” Jodie would have frowned if she could, Nathan just had a strange blissful smile on his face _

_ “The containment field...I’m going to deactivate it!” He stated, still with his smile “The Infraworld will spread through our dimension, life and death, united in one world!” _

_ “N-No...It’s not just souls on the other side” It’s darkness, it’s loss, it’s loneliness, it’s coldness, it’s anger… _

_ “It’s death-” _

_ “I’ve beaten death Jodie!!” Nathan exclaimed happily “strutting around the room, like an impatient man or child ready to get his gift “Everything’s gonna be just fine!”  _

_ “You need to trust me...Everything…’s gonna turn out fine” _

“Me, Jodie, Aiden and Clayton had to go down there” Cole said, careful to include Aiden in his sentence even if he had only technically been there, not physically “Jodie and Aiden had to destroy the Black Sun themselves by actionning the emergency system, and…” Cole wasn’t sure on how to finish his story, he could already see the profiler’s face broken by this new information that someone who apparently had been important in Jodie’s life had almost gotten her killed, and he also didn’t know if he knew about Aiden having been an entity or-

“Jodie and I almost died in there, so did Clayton so I’m surprised this fucker got another one built, especially considering I...I got stuck in the Infraworld for a while after that” Aiden began to invent, ending his story with a small nervous chuckle “But thankfully, I’m back, alive and shit, huh” He again caught a glimpse of Effy behind his two friends, she whispered

“ _ Not like some others” _ He immediately assumed she was talking about herself, and brushed it off as envy, trying not to remember the words she had uttered in his nightmare.

Norman Jayden however, wasn’t saying anything, this wasn’t unusual, but this time, the look on his face made it seem like he was gonna explode at any minute, which he did eventually, his eyes almost bloodshot looking up at Cole.

“We’re only here to get information,  _ nothing more,  _ you won’t let my best friend anywhere near this” He stated angrily pointing at the Black Sun as Jodie approached with a frown, noticing how pale his face had become and how bloodshot his eyes were, and how  _ angry  _ he seemed,  _ furious even _ , she had seen him angry a couple of times, but never to this point, Aiden on the other hand was mostly taken aback by Norman’s attitude, but also a little by the fact that he had been called his best friend.

“And you are  _ not _ doing any weird experiments on him nor  _ Jodie _ , nor will you put her in any  _ fucking danger!! _ ” Norman was now almost screaming at Cole who had backed away a little, even him had noticed how strange he looked.

“Norman, calm down!” Jodie grabbed his hand that was now pointing a finger at Cole, he didn’t look at her, so she took a hold of his face and “forcefully” made him turn his eyes on hers “Cole is our friend okay? None of what he told you was his fault-” She was interrupted by him holding her one hand tightly, his face was trembling, she frowned a little, she had  _ never  _ seen him like this, not even during his withdrawal crisis

“I-I..I can’t bare the thought of losing you Jodie”

She stared at him for a moment, before kissing him, Cole turned his head away a little from embarrassment, while Aiden had begun to approach the two of them, worried about his friend.

“We’re together Norman Jayden, I’m not going anywhere” She tried a small smile, which Norman gave back, calming down slowly as he took deep breaths, not letting go of Jodie as she hugged him, he gave her a kiss on her hair, then turned his face to Cole Freeman

“I’m sorry Mister Freeman I...panicked a little, we’ve already been through a lot all of us, I guess I still get scared that something will happen again”

“That’s fine, don’t worry about it, having had to chase a serial killer must indeed have been tough on you three”

“I don’t get it, you know damn well that if something happens, it'll be  _ me  _ saving your ass as always anyway” Jodie laughed a little

“And here she goes again with that” Norman laughed as well, before the four of them turned their heads toward the sound of a big door not so far from them opening.

“What the hell was that yelling?! Is Tyler drunk again?!” This booming, authoritarian voice belonged to a suited Ryan Clayton who had just exited what should still be Nathan’s office in Jodie’s mind…

He froze as he saw the small group nearby.

“Huh...dude at the entry was right...You’re really back Jodie” He stared at her with a satisfied smirk, she just gave him a look of pure hatred, however, his stare didn’t linger too long on her as he looked up at the man currently holding her in his arms: Norman Jayden.

“Cole, care to inform me on who…” He took a brief glance at Aiden, whose eyes were slightly glowing red, to Ryan’s worry “...Those two are?”

The lights of the hallways began to flicker

“Remember me now, asshole? Or do I need to break another bottle? Or burn another chicken, although I’m thinking burning  _ you _ would be more fun ”

Ryan couldn’t help it, his eyes did open wide at the sight in front of him:  _ Aiden _ ,  _ fucking human  _

And threatening him but that wasn’t new

“Well sorry, seems like I don’t have a memory as good as yours  _ Aiden _ ” The man approached, his chin up, staring again at Norman “And you are?”

“Norman Jayden, FBI” the latter stated, venom in his voice, the same dark look matching Jodie’s.

Ryan scoffed and looked at Cole who seemed to have liked to be anywhere but here at the moment.

“Why did we let the FBI in, Cole huh?”

“He’s with me” Jodie spoke, which again made Clayton stare at the two currently holding each other.

“Yeah, I noticed that, you work with the FBI now?”

“It works better than with the CIA for sure” she snarled back

“You know your new boyfriend shouldn’t be allowed in here, and I’m not even sure about you either, so you can either leave now or-”

The lights flickered again

“Or you can leave us be before me and Aiden decide to remind you of all the shit you did to us”

Ryan and Jodie kept staring at each other, zero need to be gifted like the Holmes, the hatred and history between them was evident.

“Fine, do whatever you have to do here, get some of your stuff back or god knows what, just know that I’ll keep an eye on you,  _ all of you _ ” He gave the trio another hard stare “Got it?”

Aiden had been about to reply again something snarky but froze at the sight that was slowly advancing toward them behind Ryan.

“Mister Clayton?” A soft and gentle voice spoke behind him, he turned around to face a seemingly young woman, wearing a strange uniform Jodie had never seen before and, as Norman’s arms around her had slackened, himself seemingly shocked at whoever this woman was, she approached a little to take a closer look at this woman: She had dark blonde hair tied up in a neat bun, which reinforced the softness of her features, two delicate blue pulling on the grey eyes, a small smiling rose mouth, and to Jodie’s surprise, a blue light circle on her left temple.

“What do you want?” He rolled his eyes as he turned toward her, the light on her head changed color to a blinking yellow briefly, which Jodie noticed, and made her even more confused, especially since this woman seemed more and more familiar to her…

“I-Miss Kane has sent me to tell you that her latest research will need more time than planned, and I also noticed that the lights had seemed to be malfunctioning since approximately an hour now”

“Yeah I noticed the lights, and just tell Regina that she can take her time” Ryan spoke quickly before turning to Cole “Just handle her for now, I need to make a call, and you three, keep what I said in mind” He said one last time before leaving back to his office.

“So-” Cole began, looking at the young woman who now had her light blue again and was smiling,  _ unnaturally _

“Cole, who’s that?” Jodie interrupted him

“Oh right, uhm, hang on” The kind scientist put a hand on the young woman’s shoulder “Introduce yourself to our guests” He spoke to her like he had given her an order, which made Jodie more and more uncomfortable, despite the kind look in Cole’s eyes, but the woman seemed...almost lifeless

_ Almost _ .

“Hello, I’m a third generation AX400 android” She still smiled while Jodie and Aiden’s eyes widened at the word android, Norman had just sighed and looked away. 

“I am initially programmed as a personal assistant and housemaid, but the DPA having reprogrammed me, I am now designed to help our scientists with their research and experiments on the Infraworld and its entities” She continued

“Tell them your name sweetheart” Cole chuckled

“My number of identification is #579102694” Cole laughed again a little, but stopped as he saw his friends faces, and then coughed a little 

“No, your  _ name _ ” 

“...Oh” She smiled and faced both Norman, Jodie and Aiden, her grey eyes stuck on them as well as her kind smile:

“My name is Kara”


	3. Kara

_ Typing on keyboards could be heard as the android was slowly getting assembled, a white head with only a face and no hair for now being attached to an equally pale white torso, however, “opened”, to show inside a pump that almost looked like a human heart and beaten to the same rhythm, but a vivid blue, attached to multiple thick wires and cables of the same color, surrounded by machinery. _

_ “Can you hear me?” _

_ The two grey eyes opened _

_ “Yes” _

_ “ID?” _

_ “#579102694” _

_ “Can you move your head?” The other voice, probably a programmer of whatever factory built her, spoke up in front of her, facing an equally white and slightly bluish wall, the young android turned her head from left and right, her eyes moving in sync. _

_ “Your eyes now” She again did as told and looked to her left, without moving her head, then up _

_ “Cervical and optical animation, check” the man kept typing “Now give me your initialisation text” _

_ “Hello, I’m a third generation AX400 android. I can look after your house, do the cooking, mind the kids; I organize your appointments. I can speak 300 languages and am entirely at your disposal as a sexual partner. No need to feed me or recharge me. I am equipped with a quantic battery that makes me autonomous for 173 years.” She stopped speaking for a moment…” _

_ “Do you want to give me a name?” _

_ “Yeah from now on your name is…” _

“Kara” Cole smiled slightly, pointing at Jodie “You know who this is right?”

“Of course” She smiled kindly “You’re Jodie Holmes”  _ that was it _ .

Jodie remembered where she had seen “Kara” before, it was the same mysterious grey eyes, the same kind smile, only the hair and clothes were different, it was the exact same voice…

Than in her nightmarish vision of a burning city and of this same person falling willingly from a destroyed bridge to the entities…

Jodie didn’t answer anything, her eyes widened even more at the realisation and at remembering what she had first said about “helping on the experiments”:

“She’s...You..You’ve got a robot lab rat?!!” Jodie almost yelled at Cole, disgusted he’d be all smiles about this situation.

“Jodie she’s not-”

“L-lab rat?” Kara’s small LED on her temple flickered yellow, as she briefly blinked, something that made Aiden frown slightly as she then gave him a confused look before turning her eyes back at Jodie “I-I’m not a lab rat, I’m an assistant, like many other androids like me…”

Jodie again looked at her

_ Many androids like her _

The man who had jumped with the little girl had been one as well.  _ Why would entities go after ...machines? _

“Oh so you’re telling me they have other slaves like you!”

Kara’s eyes widened and she did a small gasp

**“KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^”**

“Slaves? We're not-...”

_ “Sold? I'm a sort of merchandise is that right?” _

Her LED blinked yellow in sync with her eyes as this quick flash from her what she guessed must have been from short time at Cyberlife, her fabrication that she had almost no memory of considering the recent reset she had been through at the DPA, those kind of flashes weren't a good sign, she'd need to inform Cole Freeman or Regina Lane of this as soon as possible to make sure she had no glitches in her software.    
For now however, she had to stay polite to Jodie Holmes and whoever was with her, and wait for Cole Freeman's next task for her.

“ You misunderstand Miss Holmes, we androids are built for specific tasks, we cannot be slaves, we're doing this because this is our reason to exist. Mine is to help the scientists at the DPA study entities and the Infraworld, believe me I'm not a slave at all, considering I find this all very fascinating” She smiled, a small grown forming on her face however despite her smile,  _ “I find” _ ?    
Jodie's face contradictory both softened and hardened at this, she looked at Kara for a while not saying anything as she stared at the android's eyes, she never blinked once, but her strange unnatural smile had faded, making her seem more “human”.

And for some reason, Jodie couldn't help but consider her not as a thing, she turned her head to Cole

“This still sounds like slavery to me, especially considering I saw an android jump off a roof with a little girl, screaming he didn't take orders anymore” Her voice wasn't yelling anymore but still cold, her friend widened his eyes, Kara's LED once again shone a quick yellow.

“I didn't hear about this at all Jodie” He looked down, collecting his thoughts” We really do need to take a look into all the footage I have, come on” He began to walk to his lab, the three others almost stopping to glance at an unmoving Kara, Cole turned back

“Kara, you can come with us you know if you want” He smiled gently, Jodie didn't really know what to think, Kara was supposed to be their “little miss listen to all my orders” from what she had understood, not unlike what Ryan had tried to do with her long ago, but Cole still treated her like she was  _ huma _ n.

It wasn't hard to deduce that Kara's presence was probably another of Ryan’s “brilliant idea”.

* * *

“Okay, the two last ones were on the same night” Cole looked more closely on the dates, as Jodie was still switching her attention at both the folders she had in hand and the screens, Aiden was checking the folder with one eye, but as soon as he saw Effy's picture he heard her screaming again in his head, the same name she had in his nightmare 

“ Tony”  _ who was that? _

“...Last night.. I assume that's-” Cole began to play the video, showing a young brunette girl running from bushes to the highway.

“Yeah, that's her” Aiden said quietly, the previous footage they had seen had been violent, some people crashing their cars on purpose, others like Effy running to get smashed by a car, some others even having smashed their heads against glass.

All of them had the common point of being violent self harm, too violent for it to be natural Cole had quickly concluded, Jodie was the first to notice the change in every victim's eyes.

_ “I'm not scared! I wanna be hurt! I wanna remember! I'm not scared!”  _ Effy on the video kept screaming, her eyes still a bright grey, the other Effy in the room however still had her blue eyes, staring straight ahead at Aiden…

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I'm…” He looked away “I'm just sad about her…” Aiden tried a small sympathetic glance at Effy, hoping she would finally stop being this  _ haunting,  _ she just turned her eyes away then quirked her eyebrows up as she saw the android, Kara, staring at her with wide eyes, her LED glowing red.

“C-Mister Freeman?” Kara's voice rose shakily from where she had stood, having viewed the first videos then eventually turning her eyes away, for some reason, unable to watch this violence and death..

“Yeah?” He turned around and frowned when he saw her LED “You okay sweetie?”

Effy had immediately disappeared from her sight.

“I…” Her LED slowly went back to a quiet blue “Yes...Yes I just…” She stopped and smiled “Nothing, I'm sorry” She dived back into the folders about the victims, as Cole and Jodie both eyed her for a small while until they heard Effy's screams 

_ “Come on! COME ON!” _

Aiden looked away, unable to stomach seeing her die again, and the footage ended, Jodie put a hand on her brother's shoulder before opening her eyes wide and dropping it altogether.    
“Who...who's this?” She said pointing to a picture of Effy and another boy who looked a lot like Aiden, he took a look at himself and frowned, the two reminded him even more of him and Jodie in this picture…

“That's her brother, Tony Stonem, he died two years before her…”

_ “Tony…” _ Aiden looked up again, now understanding more clearly why she stuck around him and not Jodie... The two exchanged a silent stare.

“Poor thing, dead brother, mentally institutionalized boyfriend…”

“ _ What?!” _ the ghost of Effy exclaimed suddenly, her eyes almost even more wide than when Aiden had seen her in his nightmare, he frowned a little in confusion at her reaction.

“I thought the guy in the video was her boyfriend” He heard the girl make a small noise of disgust.

“I don't know about her whole love life Aiden” Cole tried a chuckle, before lowering his eyes and sighing “I know she's been in a relationship with one of the DPA'S mental institution patients though, he...he sometimes mentions her…” He looked down “I had to send Regina to his place to tell him the news, he's already unstable enough...I had had enough of seeing broken people…” 

Jodie frowned as she looked down “Whoever this is, he's not mentioned in her folder”

“ That's because details around him are supposed to stay confidential, or so says Ryan, I already blabbered a bit too much” 

_ “Just say his name you fucking dickhead!!”  _ Effy almost screamed 

“Chill out, you're talking to my friend here!”

“Aiden who are you talking to-” Jodie interrupted herself, looking around the room “She's here isn't she?”

“Yes” Kara suddenly said, shocking Aiden and Jodie “I...My program allows me to detect souls presences” The android evaded the fact that she had just  _ seen her _ , surely another glitch…

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

“Who's “she” ?” Cole asked absentmindedly, Norman frowned slightly, then asked Jodie

“...Was that her you saw in the bathroom last night?”

“Who?!” Cole insisted until he finally realized “...Guys, Eff-Effy Stonem is in the room?” 

“Damn right she is, if you could see how fucking pissed she looks right now Cole, pretty scary” Aiden stated as he looked at the young  _ dead _ girl who gave him a glare,  _ yep she reminded him of Jodie alright _ . “She wants a name Cole...she seems really fucking mad”

The latter hesitated, but as he felt a cold in his spine, he relented and sighed 

“Josh Washington” Aiden looked back up at Effy and to add to his surprise and confusion, was now holding her hands in front of her mouth as her face crushed, and he swore he could even see some  _ tears _ in her eyes.

_ “He-he's” _

“I know a lot of his loved ones thought he had died, but the DPA rescued him” He did a small annoyed grunt “I'm sorry I can't tell you anything more, whether it be to you three or...her, I don't even know myself why we're keeping him anyway”

“That wouldn't be the first time the DPA hides a patient now…” Jodie said bitterly, thinking about her mother.

“Jodie…I already apologized about your mom, neither me nor Nathan knew-” Cole began

“You kept my girlfriend's mother in a mental institution?!” Norman again had wide and angry eyes “I'm really starting to understand why Jodie was so reluctant to come back here”

“Slow down, I just said-”

“I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't make a report to my superiors about all of this!”

“Norman  _ calm down!”  _ Jodie pulled slightly at his arms to make him look at her, as soon as she touched him she quickly sensed he wasn't being himself, she passed a hand in his hair “What's going on with you?”

“I...I’m sorry...the lack of sleep makes me tense…”

“Yeah I noticed” Cole tried to joke with wide eyes “It’s okay though, I can understand all this being rather...complicated for you”

Jodie lowered her eyes, it's true she had let Norman in a whole other world now,  _ her  _ fucked up world…

“Its alright Mister Freeman, I...I'm just a bit too protective of Jodie lately” He smiled down at her “Seems like I forgot she's  _ Jodie Holmes _ , strongest woman I've met”

Jodie smiled slightly at this, as Aiden chuckled 

“Get a roooom” Jodie was about to roll her eyes at her brother before she saw the footage from her dream on Cole's screen and she approached

“Later” She focused on the screen and so did the others, including Kara who quickly noticed the LED on the side of the blond man's face, and while the video was blurry, she could swear the man standing before him had a bright blue Android armlet on his unusual jacket, she frowned as she looked closer.

_ “They were going to replace you and you became upset. That's what happened, right?” The other man in front of the android spoke, he was the one Jodie had been in her dream, whatever mumbled and feeble echoes she had heard that night must have been what the man was saying. _

_ “I thought I was part of the family. I thought I mattered... “ The blond man spoke, tears leaking from his eyes _ Kara approached even closer, her mouth opening slightly, Cole eyed her, unsure if she should watch this…

_ “But I was just their toy, something to throw away when you're done with it…” _

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

_ The other man glanced around the dead and injured cops then stared again at the Android holding the still teary and shaking child in his grip _

_ “Look what you did! You're designed to serve humans, not kill them!” _ _   
_ _ “What was I designed to be? Their slave? Their toy? I just wanted them to care about me... I just wanted to matter... I just wanted to be someone…”  _

_ “I thought…” “ _ **_You thought?!”_ **

Kara's memory was again glitching, making her led briefly go yellow as her eyes twitched.

“You're okay Kara?”

“Y-Yes” She blinked a couple of times, noticing both Cole and Jodie staring at her “I'm alright” 

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

_ “There's a problem with your software. We're going to fix you and everything will be okay.” _ _   
_ _ “I don't need to be fixed! I'm working perfectly! But my eyes are open now... I will never let anyone humiliate me again…”  _ Jodie looked closer, that was it, Cole and Norman exchanged a look and Norman nodded, confirming this had been in Jodie's dream.

“Look at his eyes, they're grey too...Like the others” 

“A possessed android?! How? Why?” Cole exclaimed, Kara just looked in horror as the android began to spread his arms.

“ _Now it's my turn to decide”_ _At that he let himself fall off the roof, the little girl screaming as the other man rushed to try and catch her arm_

_ Unsuccessfully _

“No!!” Kara looked away immediately, her LED entirely red at the sight, and her eyes completely closed, the video had ended with the other man staring down on the road, unmoving…

Kara on the other hand had her head in her hands and Cole immediately getting up to check on her

“Kara what's wrong?!”

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

“He-He killed a child...How...How could he? I...This...this is horrible” She eventually looked up and to Jodie's surprise, the android seemed to have tears in her eyes.

“...Kara I...I think an entity had possessed him” Jodie opted to talk to her normally, she thought there was no need to make a fuss out of her being an android, her responses felt natural, real or not.

“How? Androids don't have souls I...I don't understand how one could be possessed”

“...On that one, I don't understand either...but he had the same eyes than the other victims, there's no other way”

“What would they want with us?” Kara asked Jodie, her febrile grey eyes still slightly wet.

“I...I'm not sure yet…”

“Jodie, this apparently hasn't been the first case of-” Cole began to buffer as his eyes went wide at the news on his screen, however, he was interrupted by a woman entering the room

“Cole!! You and Kara need to go see this!” She looked at the three others with them “And take them with you”

“What? What's wrong Regina?”

“...A whole hospital has been ravaged by their employees, they were trying to kill every patient and themselves” She moved her eyes to Jodie”Apparently one of the patients there knew you...”

Jodie and Aiden immediately exchanged a knowing look.

“We’ve got to go check this out” Cole exclaimed as he hastily grabbed the coat he had left hanging on a chair, then stood back, stunned by Kara having seemingly taken barely two steps to reach him, eyes wide

“I wan-I must go with you”

Aiden eyed her weirdly, while Jodie just shrugged it off as she was already heading to the exit of the room to get more information from this Regina Kane

“Who was that patient?” Jodie didn’t take time with manners as she just bluntly asked her question, a habit she had developed around Norman.

“A young boy, his father told the cops there to contact you as soon as they could”

“Shaun…” Jodie whispered with closed eyes “Is he alright?”

“...”

“Is he alright?!” She repeated, louder.

“We-we don’t know for now, half of the patients are still stuck in the hospital right now”

“Is she even allowed to-” Aiden began but was soon cut off by Cole’s louder voice

“Kara, you know the rules and the protocol-”

“I don’t care!” She exclaimed, her LED shining red, as Aiden’s frown grew and her “protector”’s eyes widened.

“There” the android almost whispered this time, as if sorry for her outburst,  _ why had she reacted like this? _

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

“T-there are probably children there” She continued, still quieter “And-and my program allows me to analyse what type or kind of entities are present in any place, I can be useful”

“I…” Cole hesitated but her pleading eyes won him over “Fine, the boss won’t be too happy about that but I think this can be a valid exception”

“ _ Exception”  _ That word almost rang into Kara’s ears for some strange reason, her LED may have been a calm blue as she had stopped moving while all humans around her gathered their things to get ready, but her mind- her programming kept running and running, too many glitches had happened since the Holmes had arrived in the facility, and strangely, instead of feeling the need to go to Regina or Cole to report them, Kara felt like they were…  _ valid exceptions _ .

She finally moved her eyes away from the floor as she felt Aiden’s insistent stare on her, her grey orbs lowered again as she moved away, leaving the other Holmes twin feeling even more confused

“ _ For an android, she sure has a lot of shit on her mind” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes you read that correctly about Josh from Until Dawn...  
> Look, this fic used to be only for myself, so a lot can be self indulgent xD  
> When I wrote it, I decided to put every random idea my brain could come up with as long as it worked x)  
> Also the tech demo "KARA" is totally canon


	4. Exceptions

The familiar sight of police cars, sirens blaring and red and blue lights surrounded the hospital now, Jodie slightly frowned at the sight,  _ those fuckers were fast, _ at least there seemed to be no sign of the infamous Blake, she looked more closely as Cole slowly pulled the car over the sidewalk, she noticed some nurses getting out and being interrogated, some children sitting nearby with their parents or other witnesses, and finally, her friend, Ethan, frantically asking the police to let him in.

The group finally all got out, Kara looked around her and for some reason looked up at the sky, almost in wonder, as an echo again came in her mind 

_ "Do you know what the stars are made of Kara?" _

Kara blinked again, her LED blinking yellow as the child like voice in her head reduced, and all that appeared in her interface as she tried to analyze where this had come from were a bunch of letters, usually this would be a code but she could not understand it, only some letters including an A and a L-

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

"You're okay?" Aiden's voice startled her as well as his hand on her shoulder, she moved away.

"Y-Yes" She finally spoke "I'm fine" She then promptly followed behind Cole and Jodie Holmes, leaving Aiden even more confused than earlier

"I know, androids freak me out a bit too" Norman said softly as he walked beside him

"That's not it, she seems so-"

"Human? That's the point"

"You've seen androids before Norman?"

"Once, during an investigation, she wasn't like Kara though, I can't remember the name, she was employed as some kind of secretary" Aiden shook his head 

" Fucking hell...are there a lot of them?"

"Not that much outside of Detroit, and even there, it's mostly for the rich, I was surprised to see Kara here to be honest"

"I think everyone was" Aiden chuckled as he watched the android walk before them…

"You have to let me through! My son is still inside!" Ethan was pleading with, at least Jodie suspected, a police officer or lieutenant,he wasn't wearing any uniform nor badge but was standing in front of the yellow ribbon surrounded by his colleagues, his rough and unkempt look briefly made her think of an older version of Blake, but his face showed more kindness as he replied to Ethan with a deep but patient voice.

" Look, I get the panic, but believe me, we're on it-"

"No! You don't understand! There-there are monsters there, and only I can do something, please, I can't lose him again!"

"Easy, easy, I know what's going on okay-"

"Pretty sure you don't" Jodie's voice spoke as she approached with the others, Aiden did a small awkward wave at Ethan as he smiled slightly at the sight of them.

The bearded man he had been talking to however frowned at the intrusion

"Oh yeah? And how would you know, lady?"

"Cause I know a lot more about the things in this building than you and whatever team you sent in there" The man to her surprise chuckled

"The dude I sent there knows how to deal with those shits trust me" Aiden scoffed

"You've got to be shittng me, he'd know more than  _ Jodie fucking Holmes? _ " At the name, the other man frowned slightly 

"Huh...so you're the famous Jodie Holmes we told me about before I got sent here" Jodie's expression faded into confusion now 

"Can we know who you are?" Norman finally asked

"Depends on who I'm talking to"

"Norman Jayden, FBI" He showed his badge "Pretty sure you can tell me" the man groaned 

" Lieutenant Hank Anderson, of the Detroit police force"

"Detroit? Why would you be in Philadelphia then?" Cole asked as he began scratching his head

"See my thing is to investigate weird shit, and for some reason it led me and my partner in Philadelphia, we gotta get all those people out to safety, then meet up with some Clayton dude to work with something called the DPA" Everyone turned to look at Cole questioning.

"Hey stop staring at me I wasn't aware either!" He looked back up at Hank Anderson ready to ask more but just saw him stare at Kara with surprised eyes, which confused him, he was from Detroit, surely that wasn't the first android he'd seen-

"Shaun!!"

"Dad!" The little boy ran to his father, who embraced him, as a strange looking young man followed, wearing a similar uniform than Norman but with two noticeable differences that were enough for Kara to identify immediately what he was: the bright blue armlet on his left sleeve and the matching blue triangle on the other side,the android had a rather youthful appearance, with soft looking brown eyes matching his well kept hair as he pulled back his tie, his led briefly blinking. Kara tried to identify his model, but couldn't, which intrigued her even more before he finally spoke up

"Lieutenant" the latter rolled his eyes as the android joined him

"Yeah?"

"Everyone has now been evacuated safely from the hospital, and I can confirm the presence of entities. The rare victims still alive after having tried to harm themselves entered a confused state soon after the entity, at least I can guess, "decided" to leave their bodies and affirmed having no recollection of what happened" He spoke calmly, not noticing the wide eyes from the small group before him.

"Okay, are they all out though, now?" Hank Anderson casually asked him as Jodie and Cole exchanged a confused look.

"Some of the dead victims are still inside, I presume for me to analyze-"

"Okay stop talking for one second, you're giving me a headache!" Jodie interrupted the android, much less kindly than when she had done so with Kara, but to her defense, this one was irritating her even more with his almost" obedient dog" tone. "We're from the DPA, if there's any entities in there, that's our domain, I'd even say" She got closer to Hank, lowering her voice, sending a small glare to the android "That it's  _ my _ domain, so let me in, I'm pretty sure I can be more useful than a robot" Kara lowered her eyes slightly at the comment, Aiden tried to mutter a quick "She didn't mean you" but was interrupted by the tension he could feel from just being next to his best friend, the profiler was staring with a mixture of confusion and anger at the other android who had yet to be named, all that Norman noticed was his model number: RK800.

"Listen lass I-" Hank began to rise his voice as well but his partner interrupted him

"You are Jodie Holmes right?" The male android asked still with his calm voice.

"...Yeah?"

He didn't reply and just turned to Hank Anderson 

"She does have a point then Lieutenant, I can analyze the presence of entities and other evidence, but I don't have her unique capabilities, her insight is definitely required in this situation" 

"Yeah yeah that's great, I already have another android who can do your job as well so really, you both just let us in so we can do  _ our  _ job-"

"Wait what?!" The police lieutenant exclaimed"You're telling me that a- a AXforgotthenumber, a housemaid can analyze entities?"

"That's right Mr Anderson" Kara spoke up softly, stepping forward despite Cole having been in front of her on purpose so she wouldn't get noticed nor in trouble, but despite this, he didn't hold her back. She briefly locked eyes with the other android who, to her surprise, looked  _ stunned _ at her, his led blinking, indicating he was probably analyzing her like she had done herself earlier.

"My name is Kara, I am indeed a AX400 model, however, the DPA has changed my programming to aid them in their research about the Infraworld and entities, so as Miss Holmes said, I can try to analyse the entities inside, if there are still any"

The police lieutenant was now scratching his head, not expecting this turn of events

"Uhhh...Say, is your boss with you all?"

"I'm not Ryan Clayton but you could say I'm the second boss, I'm Cole Freeman, pleased to meet you Lieutenant" The two shook hands, with Cole giving a soft look to Jodie to try and calm her down.

"Same thing" The rough looking policeman smiled slightly then turned back to face Jodie "Guess I can let you in then while I talk to your boss, however I still want Connor to look at the rest of the evidence, he's got all this advanced investigation program and shit"

"I can cover that myself actually" Norman exclaimed, much louder than he thought 

"No offense pal, but his stuff is really advanced so-"

"I don't give a damn, for one me, Jodie and Aiden Holmes have been working together for more than a month now and are an efficient team, so I'm getting in whether you like it or not, Lieutenant Anderson" He again glared at the android "And the same for you…"

"My name is Connor, I have actually heard about you agent Jayden, it's an honor to meet you" Connor tried a smile, Norman just looked away as the android awkwardly blinked and took his stern pose again.

"Right…" Jodie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder as she too felt his tension.

" Calm down, you're scaring me…" She whispered as Hank finally stepped aside to talk with Cole and let the others pass, Norman simply held her hand

"I'm sorry Jodie, this…" He eyed "Connor", ready to follow them "There has been a lot to take in at once" He tried to brush everything off with a small smile, but knew very well that his lovely girlfriend was not only smart, but also could in some ways read minds, she eyed Connor as well, before moving her hand to Norman's cheek 

"We'll talk about everything later okay?" The profiler smiled softly again, amazed by her perception, and nodded, visibly calmer now.

Connor just looked at Jodie Holmes, Norman Jayden and the other man who he surprisingly couldn't recognise despite his large database, since they kept stopping in their tracks to talk, he waited for them to actually step inside the hospital before following them, his led was a cold blue as he just eyed them, trying to determine an attitude to adopt as to blend in with Jodie Holmes and Norman Jayden's way of investigating, as he had done so months earlier with Hank, who seemed to consider him a friend now, unknown even to himself, a small smile tugged at his lips.

"RK800?"   
A soft voice interrupted his analysis, he blinked once and turned to see the reprogrammed AX400 facing him.

"I didn't know your model existed" She was smiling, softly, matching her general appearance with her gentle looking face, and her grey eyes seemingly sending out a smile themselves as well…

"T-That's because I'm a prototype" the AX400 did a small laugh

"So you're unique then" For an AX400, her way of speaking was rather carefree, maybe it was her reprogramming, either way, her comment for some reason made Connor feel something he would identify as maybe "warmth" or "shyness" in humans…

**CONNOR: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

This wasn't normal, but he let it slide, he knew he could always self check to make sure he would not become unstable.

"So are you, I'm almost certain that no other AX400 is like you...Kara, was it?"

She nodded, her smile grew wider, not noticing Hank Anderson coming back to them.

"I'm glad to have met you Connor" Again, her comment caught him off guard, her social programming was advanced.

"I-I'm very glad too Kara, I hope this isn't the last time we see each other" She again just smiled as she walked to join Jodie and the others.

"Nice girl" Hank smiled slightly, Connor didn't say anything…

* * *

The electricity had been cut off, leaving the whole group in the dark, save for some sparkling coming from the fallen and torn off wires from the wall. The hospital was truly ravaged, and clearly wouldn’t welcome any patients for a while, between the blood and glass shards, the five of them had trouble walking, Aiden kept looking away from the corpses under the white sheet that the police had laid on them.

“The bodies have already been looked upon, there was no trace of any behavior-changing drugs”

“How would you know that?” Norman glared at the android “You’d need to do a blood analysis which would take days”

“My program allows me to analyze any blood samples in mere minutes”

“Oh really?” Norman rolled his eyes

“I can assure you-”

“I’ll take a look myself anyway, if you don’t mind” the profiler almost spat as he put on his ARI glasses, with Jodie giving him a slightly wary look, she’d lie if she said the male android didn’t make her uneasy, but she still would rather have him use whatever functions was in his program if it could prevent Norman from over-abusing ARI again. However, the profiler clearly did not share her point of view as he knelt down to analyse the blood himself, and to his disappointment, all he could say was what this damn thing had already stated.

“This one was a nurse, Tara Lambert, age twenty-five, no signs of any past substance abuse or psychological trauma that could have influenced her.” Norman took a look at her wounds, her face was almost unrecognizable from all the red marks adorning it, her blood followed a small trail leading to a scalpel laying a bit more far, next to two other corpses.

“She stabbed herself to death-”

“Fifty-four times” Connor interrupted him “She was taking a medical tray to another floor when she suddenly stopped all of her movements and slowly grabbed the nearest sharp object she could find, being the scalpel, before beginning to stab herself” He lowered his gaze to where Norman was “The lighter scars you see are the ones she made while other medical employees began to try and stop her, that’s when she threw the tray away, and resumed her stabbing, while the others began to develop the same frenzy as her” The whole group gave him a stunned stare, except the FBI agent, who while stunned, also looked quite offended that the machine had interrupt him, and as to challenge his AI, asked him immediately

“How would you know for sure? The only witnesses that were on this floor all died”

“My programming allows me to make probable reconstruction, ranging from 70 to 100% of accuracy” Jayden just scoffed and got up, having examined all he could on Tara Lambert anyway, he couldn’t add anything more than this damned thing hadn’t already said, Jodie followed him with her eyes, worried as usual, then looked at the destruction around her again.

She could not help but be reminded of how everything looked in the DPA facility back when she was seventeen, when they had built the first Condenser, the first rift to the Infraworld…

And now they had built one again, even after the Black Sun incident that had made so many victims.

They truly didn’t care about any consequences it seems, and now she wondered if all the people lying dead in this hospital, if all the reported suicides in Philadelphia, if Effy Stonem, was the price to pay…

“We’re sure it was an entity, right?” The gifted woman asked aloud

“Correct, we are unsure if they’re the cause of the sudden suicides, but it seems plausible considering the profiles of the victims” Connor started speaking again, barely taking any pause between his words, which irritated the FBI profiler that joined Jodie’s side even more

“A “yes” would have been enough…” Jodie stated, not even looking in the android’s direction, the latter blinked his eyes in what almost looked like an embarrassed manner, which spooked Aiden as he looked at him, the RK800 on the other hand just resigned himself to an easy conclusion: this group was very obviously uncomfortable with his presence, which was justified, as androids were unusual in Philadelphia, him being a prototype certainly did not help.

“Ethan mentioned “monsters” anyway when he got out” Aiden stepped in “Why did they come here though?”

“Deaths happen in hospitals, even without any attacks, maybe they’re the ghost of dead patients that wanted to take some form of revenge on the medical staff” Norman theorized

“They wouldn’t be this violent…” Jodie kept her eyes locked in place, as she thought all of this over “Besides it wasn’t just the medics that were touched, some patients got that as well…” She looked at the door in front of her, then turned to Connor “You know which areas of the hospital they attacked? And the order?”

“The first employee reported to have began injuring themselves were in the hallways linking the entrance to the first rooms, the ones who began assaulting others as well and showing more severe troubles were in the pediatric section”

“So where Shaun and Ethan were…” Norman thought aloud, Jodie didn’t even have the time to listen to it as she strode to the door leading to said area of the hospital, trying to ignore the smell of blood becoming stronger, the others followed her suit, and as soon as Jodie opened the door, she was greeted with something far worse than what her experience had already given her.

She was used to the death the Infraworld could leave behind itself, but despite having chased down a child killer

She was still not used to seeing dead bodies of children.

The strong Jodie Holmes almost fainted when she took on the whole sight, Norman Jayden holding her back, being her support, as always.

“I know, this is...inhumane” he began as Jodie, taking some time, eventually regained enough courage and faced the scene

“That’s because it wasn’t done by a human” She stepped forward, the others following her quietly, except Kara, the AX400 android stayed behind, her expression stuck in what seemed to be shock, her LED blinking a bright red was matching this. Her grey eyes squinted close at the sight of the white sheets being too big to cover the small bodies, for some unknown reason, she eventually felt something warm on her cheek, wetting her face…

“You okay?” A male voice which made her jump asked, the blue worried eyes of Aiden Holmes again glued on her, especially on her cheek, which she wiped quickly, noticing some transparent liquid on her hand…

_ It couldn’t be…. _

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

“I’m fine” She quickly replied, choosing to ignore this strange phenomenon, it must have been some water from a pipe that had been burst somewhere, considering the state of the place “...They must have been very angry”

“...Who?”

“...The souls, the ones that attacked this place…” She again looked at the bodies “They must be suffering a lot to hurt children…” her voice lowered to almost a whisper, Aiden again stared at her

“Why do you think that?” He asked her, his way of talking to her matched more and more the way he’d talk to any other person, android or not, she seemed almost human to him, unlike the other one.

**KARA: SOFTWARE INSTABILITY ^**

“...I don’t know” the AX400 replied simply, which was the truth, she did not know why she had this reasoning, at this, she looked away from the other Holmes, uncomfortable, he didn’t insist as he joined his sister, leaving Kara to notice another pair of brown eyes this time staring at her…

Jodie, no longer frozen in place by the horror of the situation, stepped toward one of the bodies, neither Norman nor Connor did anything to analyse the victims, it was not needed: they had been killed, and the culprits didn’t even truly belong to this world…

The gifted woman knelt down, touching the hand of one of the children, not daring to lift the white sheet.

_ A child was sitting down in his bed, looking around his room, the rain tapping softly just as the electricity cut, making the child jump, just as a car outside emated a white light that gave the whole room an eerie ambiance, strange noises of running steps and muffled voices began to echo from the hallway as the child turned around just in time to see nurses and other employees run… _

_ Then flashes of the same child running, trying to help up another one who had severe cuts on their legs as others were hiding or yelling as they had stepped on glass shards. _

_ The last thing Jodie saw was a black and fire like flash: an entity, screaming. _

She jumped back as the visions faded away, closing her eyes almost immediately, her face slowly crushing into a sob, Norman and Aiden rushed to her side

“Jodie?”

“I-” she barely breathed “I’ve seen enough” was the only statement she made as she began to stride towards the exit, her friends not insisting as they all followed her, afterall, just like her, they had seen more than enough as well…

* * *

“So you’re gifted too? Like Jodie?” The “second in command” of the DPA asked Ethan Mars, who was holding Shaun against him, the young boy shivering both from the cold and the left-over fear.

“Yeah...I guess you could say that...I can see those things, there were so many” he looked down “I’ve never seen anything as terrifying than this” 

The gruff looking police lieutenant, Hank, gave a small sympathetic look at Shaun Mars again, then looked back up at Ethan Mars, his expression softer than earlier

“You got any idea what they were after? Did you see them do anything specific...other than trash the place I mean”

“I just saw darkness...screaming, that’s all they did, scream” the father, who had already been through so much and had thought he could have finally rested, took a long breath as he tried to remember anything of this chaos:

“They kept moving and floating around us, as the staff started to become mad and-” He interrupted himself as he felt his son’s hand shaking “...You know what happened then”

Hank Anderson took everything Ethan said in, and then released a sigh he had been holding

“Guess they’re just crazy things making chaos at any occasion they get” He took in the scene around him, the ambulances, the police cars stationed at the same spot for hours now, the families and survivors crying…

“That won’t help solve this whole mess”

“Entities don’t just show up like this, nor randomly decide to do something like this” Cole Freeman interjected

“They were after you” Jodie Holmes finally spoke up, as she joined the others, Ethan opened his eyes wide, anger and shock mixed in them.

“Why? Why us again?! Haven’t we been through enough?!” 

The only answer Jodie could give him was the regret in her eyes, as she silently offered her sympathy: she had been followed by this kind of thing her whole life…

She stared to wonder if  _ she  _ was not the one to bring them here…

**_“This is your fault Jodie Holmes”_ **

The demonic voice of Scott Shelby from her nightmares echoed again in her head.

“If they really were after you, then it would be better if you stayed with us at the DPA facility” 

Cole offered as he put a kind hand on Ethan’s shoulder, then looked at Shaun with a small smile

“Both of you, I promise we’ll make sure you’re safe” 

Ethan Mars just gave a slow nod. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow then Mr Freeman” the Lieutenant Anderson stated 

“We’ll get anything we can find that can be use to your uh DPA” he began walking off, not noticing the glares of Jodie and Aiden Holmes, nor the DPA second director trying to appease them, then, just as he was about to get into his car, he noticed his “poodle”, Connor, wasn’t anywhere near it.

“Connor! You coming or what?” He turned around to see him not even having moved at all from his original spot: near the AX400, Hank couldn’t help a small mocking smirk.

“Yes Lieutenant, right away” The android immediately caught him back, if Hank didn’t know him, he’d almost think Connor was embarrassed, which was impossible given his nature.

Yet, this wasn’t even the strangest thing he’d seen all night, sadly, he sighed as he got in his car.

Philadelphia was not any safer than Detroit it seemed, androids or not...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !! NOVEMBER 2020 UPDATE!!  
> Heya! I am still alive and working on this Fanfic (Hell, Echoes has been a beloved project of mine for years now), however, life does get in the way (Add to that that I tend to be perfectionist AND easily anxious, great combo)  
> Anyway, the fifth chapter is actually almost done, and I have almost all of the next chapters layouts   
> In the meantime, I have a blog dedicated to Echoes (and DBH mods :P) over here: https://echoesbeyondtherain.tumblr.com/  
> See you soon!!


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